PREPARATION

Clean, trim , and singe chicken. Quarter the chicken if necessary;
Place quartered chicken in a close-fitting 5 quart soup pot. A whole
chicken should fit into a 6- to 7-quart pot. Add 10 cups water if you
use broilers or 12 if you use a fowl. Water should cover chicken.
Cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a slow simmer and skim
foam as it rises to the surface. Soup should cook at a smile, a low
simmer that produces a sort of trembly, faint rippling just
below the surface.

When foam subsides, add all remaining ingredients with only 1 teaspoon
of salt. Cook chicken until it is loosening from the bone. If the chicken
is quartered, allow about 1-1/4 hours for cooking broilers and 2-1/2
to 3 hours for a fowl. Add more water during cooking if chicken is
not seven-eighths covered. Turn chicken 2 or 3 times during cooking.
Add salt gradually, tasting as the soup progresses.

Remove chicken, giblets, and bones and set aside. Pour soup through
a sieve, rinse pot and then return soup to pot if it is to be served
immediately. Skim fat from surface if it is to be served without being
stored.

Soup can be prepared in advance up to this point. If you are going to
store the soup, strain it over a bowl but do not skim. Cool thoroughly,
uncovered, then cover and place in a refrigerator. Store wrapped chicken
separately in the refrigerator. Discard (or nibble on) giblets, bone,
and
soup vegetables.

Chicken can be reheated in soup, either in quarters with bones and skins
for a lusty dish or trimmed of bones and skin and cut into smaller easily
spooned pieces.